petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm re

liance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, 1778.

On the 17th of November, 1777, the Continental Congress submitted to the several states proposed Articles of Confederation which had been adopted on the 15th, accompanied by an eloquent and impressive appeal to the legislatures to take immediate action. The Articles are described as "a plan of confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the United States." New York ratified the Articles on the 6th of February, 1778. On the 9th of July, 1778, the Articles were ratified by the delegates in Congress from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. North Carolina had ratified the Articles, but that state and Georgia were not then represented in Congress. The delegates from New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland had not then been authorized to sign the Articles. Maryland, which was the last state to act, ratified the Articles on the 30th of January, 1781, and the delegates from that state signed them on the 1st of March. following. This completed the ratification.

The ratification by New York, in 1778, was subject to the approval of the Articles by all the other states; but on the 23d of October, 1779, a supplemental act was passed, dispensing with such unanimous approval so far as New York was concerned, and authorizing its delegates in Congress to join with the delegates from so many of the other states as might be judged "proper and competent for mutual defense and permanent security." It is a noteworthy fact that when the Articles were finally ratified by all the states, March 1, 1781, the Revolutionary War was nearly over. Corn

wallis surrendered in October following, and there was little actual war after that time, although two years more elapsed before peace was finally consummated. The student of the Federal Constitution cannot fail to observe that many provisions in the Articles appear again in the Constitution, sometimes in substance, but often in the same language used here. While the Articles were conceded to be inadequate, the problem of uniting the states was an exceedingly difficult one, and it is a high tribute to the wisdom and patriotism of the statesmen of that period that they were able to maintain even the semblance of a government under such unfavorable conditions. The Articles appear to be dated July 9, 1778. This is the date on which a majority of the delegates signed them; but, as already pointed out, nearly three years elapsed before the ratification became complete. For the reader's convenience I have prefixed a title to each article.

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, &c.

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, We, the undersigned, Delegates of the States affixed to our names, send greeting:

WHEREAS The Delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did, on the fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, and in the second year of the independence of America, agree to certain articles of confederation and perpetual union between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,